BATTLE ON THE BEACH Season 5 Is ‘An Emotional Rollercoaster’ You Won’t Want to Miss

Published: June 2, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

BATTLE ON THE BEACH mentor Ty Pennington says Season 5 has a lot of drama.

“No joke, there was a crisis every day,” Pennington said. “You couldn’t have really cast any better personalities for the stress that this season was.”

“We all had to scramble to figure out how we can not only be a mentor and be someone’s experience in design, but also be a mental therapist to help people through this?” he added.

In the series, three teams of two budding renovators attempt to increase the value of beachfront vacation homes for a cash prize of $50,000. The pairs are given a budget of $100,000 to update the homes, which they renovate over seven weeks.

Mother-daughter duo Michelle Mueller and Sydney Lorence experienced turmoil from the first day on the job, and every team felt “crushing defeat and feeling just completely like you’ve lost everything,” Pennington said.

Even the mentors felt emotionally drained.

“I would normally go to [my husband] Brian if I’m feeling upset or I had an emotional breakdown day, but I knew I could go to Ty and Sarah, and they would have my back, and they would talk me through it the same way Brian would,” mentor Mika Kleinschmidt said.

The stress is on for everyone because the homes open to the public as soon as the seven weeks are over.

View this post on Instagram

Pennington explained, “The vacationers have already arrived. So whatever decisions are made, they have to be good decisions, because somebody is booking this place.”

He called it “an emotional rollercoaster, adding that everyone had to make “design decisions that you have to believe in.”

Mentor Sarah Beaumler said she experienced a kind of stress she wasn’t used to.

“I had a little more stress this season from just being the ‘judgy’ one to actually having to do a lot of the heavy lifting,” she said.

Kleinschmidt compared the experience to the waves on the beach. “They go up and down, but you just hope you don’t crash too hard,” she joked.

Sometimes Baeumler had a hard time biting her tongue and letting her team create their vision.

“I’m there to support, guide, and, at times, I learned a little more, probably, to speak up and say ‘I don’t agree. This is why I don’t agree. But how can we come to something that feels authentic to what they’re trying to create?’”

Baeumler continued, “At the end of the day, this is a lot of money on the line, and they are out there to win this for themselves. And I want to make sure we support that, but that it’s guided by their direction and their passion.”

The season premiered on HGTV yesterday. It’s available to stream now on HBO Max, People reported.

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.